The annual vine cultivation cycle begins with the pruning, which consists in cutting the vine-wood branches to leave only one long fruit-bearing branch per vine plant.
Vine posts are generally located along the vine rows and are connected by means of one or two steel wires called tying wires, to which the branches hang on during their growth by forming tendrils.
So, after the pruning operation, the branches, that is to say the cut-off branches and the long fruit-bearing branch, remain hanging on the tying wires.
It is therefore necessary to detach, or to “pull off”, the cut-off branches, which is presently made manually by the pruner.
This operation is extremely tedious and costly in terms of labor, so that there is a need for a machine that would allow pulling out automatically the cut-off vine branches.